Discussion Topics for Today's Classroom

Posts Categorized: Entertainment

A convicted software pirate has been handed an unusual punishment. The man, named only as Jakub F, was told he would be spared having to pay hefty damages as long as a film denouncing piracy he was made to produce got 200,000 views. Source: BBC Tech news Date: November 30th, 2015 Link: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34932628 Discussion 1) These were major… Read more »

Recently 17 million users visited an app via Facebook which offered to provide them with a word cloud of their most used words on the social network. A few days later, freelance journalist Paul Bischoff wrote a piece for Comparitech entitled “That most used words Facebook quiz is a privacy nightmare” which outlined the huge amounts of data… Read more »

Ever wondered who viewed your Instagram profile? There was a popular iPhone app for that … until it was caught stealing your Instagram password. Source: CNN Date: November 19th, 2015 Link: http://money.cnn.com/2015/11/12/technology/instaagent-instagram/index.html?iid=ob_article_hotListpool&iid=obinsite Discussion 1) The article says that the InstaAgent app stole a user’s Instagram password, which might be the same as the user’s other site or… Read more »

When HBO started thinking about selling subscriptions via the Internet, the network’s CEO Richard Plepler brought in tech whizzes as teachers. “I went to school,” he says. “I brought in all kinds of people who knew an enormous amount, much more than I did about this… and made sure that we had the right people… Read more »

The digital airwaves contain a smorgasbord of music streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music and Pandora to name but a few. After a year in beta, YouTube Music has arrived on the scene to shake things up a little with a unique blend that focuses on music videos and shiny new features for music… Read more »

Turning your “killer app” or web service into a global giant attracting millions of users and stratospheric valuations is much more difficult. Yes, we’ve had the likes of Google, Facebook, Airbnb, Uber, and Spotify, but the reality is that 90% of all early stage businesses fail, whether through lack of investment, customers or sales. Source: BBC… Read more »

Amazon is opening a bookshop in Seattle in a move it described as a “physical extension” of its business. It will stock the most popular books from Amazon.com, and the prices will be the same as those offered on the website. Customers will also be able to try out Amazon’s devices, including the Kindle and its… Read more »

Source: Mental Floss Date: November 1st, 2015 Link: http://mentalfloss.com/article/68779/12-secrets-your-companys-it-people Discussion 1) How many of these points apply to you as a student inside your university and using the university’s network? 2) Know these IT issues is important and can set you apart. How is IT different from IS?

Source: BBC Date: October 6th, 2015 Link: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-34349767 Mr Mureta built his fortune designing apps. His creations, which include Emoji, helping users annotate their messages with a greater variety of amusing pictures, and a phone security app, Fingerprint Scanner Pro, have been downloaded over fifty million times. His company, App Empire, pulls in between $3m and $5m… Read more »

In a world where machines can do many things as well as humans, one would like to hope there remain enclaves of human endeavour to which they simply cannot aspire. Art, literature, poetry, music – surely a mere computer without world experience, moods, memories and downright human fallibility cannot create these? Not so. Source: BBC… Read more »